The president said he was ready. He sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, a friendly interview with a longtime Clinton operative. It was supposed to be the grand slam of this media rehabilitation tour that’s quickly spiraling out of control as Biden’s age, which is unfixable, continues to show itself. The interview was only 22 minutes.
Biden didn’t do enough to quiet his detractors, worried that the aging president is going to wipe out Democrats in November, which is a real possibility, but also didn’t give the ‘dump Biden’ crowd the ammunition it needed to deliver the slam-dunk case to push the president out. It’s political purgatory at its finest, with the media also not buying the president’s spin that he’s going to beat Donald Trump, that this race is neck-and-neck, and his nightmare debate with Trump on June 27, which is looking like an election-killing spectacle, was due to a bad cold.
The Associated Press’ headline was not confident-inducing: “Biden faced a low bar in his first post-debate interview. It’s not certain he cleared it.”
Biden performed better than he did on the debate stage. There were also flashes of strength as the president talked up his record, vowed not to leave the race and took shots at Donald Trump, whom he repeatedly described as a “pathological liar.” Biden also referred to Trump at one point as a “congenital liar.”
But he needed to do much more than clear the incredibly low bar he set on national television last week. And the ABC interview had several examples of awkward pauses, garbled words and moments where he meandered.
In one of the opening answers of the interview, Biden struggled to explain clearly whether he was aware of how bad his debate performance was as it was happening in real time. He jumped from his preparation to polling to Trump’s lies during the debate to not blaming anyone.
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The bottom line is that Biden does not have a good explanation for his dismal debate performance.
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Even before the interview was over, it was clear it would take much more to win over a party that is suddenly open to Biden alternatives just four months before Election Day.
At roughly the same time ABC released the first interview clip, Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., became the fourth Democratic member of Congress to call on Biden to leave the race.
“To prevent utter catastrophe,” Quigley said on MSNBC, “step down and let someone else do this.”
Democrats are being encouraged by the White House and the president’s campaign not to go public with their concerns about Biden’s viability or electability, according to a Democrat granted anonymity to discuss the matter.
Another Democrat who watched said they found Biden to be shaky and predicted more will call on him to leave the race.
The one gripe I had with this piece is that they described this interview as “not easy.” Please—and Biden lied multiple times, even torching his own narrative for why he did pool against Trump. Exhaustion? A cold? The man was seen at Waffle House at 2 am following Trump dog walking him in the debate. Mark Warner did not run for president, and yes, Joe, your approval rating—hovering around 32 percent—is that low.
The Wall Street Journal’s Molly Ball noted how the interview was soaked in denialism, with odd interjections about his record that no real president would be proud of—Biden has done little if anything to help working Americans who are being crushed by inflation. The two things this campaign and its surrogates peddle as helping American families is lowering the cost of drugs and making it easier to break up monopolies. It doesn’t get more “inside-the-beltway” than that; just total detachment from the realities voters are facing this year:
Even the talking points they’re giving him that Biden can’t remember how to deliver are bad. It’s a bad campaign.
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) July 6, 2024
Biden spoke softly and looked pained throughout the brief interview. He returned again and again to enumerating his administration’s accomplishments, refusing to entertain questions about the many accounts of his declining lucidity. He said he had no plans to undergo more extensive medical testing and that his daily exertions as president ought to serve as proof enough of his cognitive abilities.
“I get a cognitive test every day,” Biden said. “Everything I do—you know, not only am I campaigning, but I’m running the world.”
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Stephanopoulos also repeatedly pressed Biden to acknowledge the severity of the situation. But Biden said all the top Democrats he has spoken to have urged him to stay in the race. When Stephanopoulos pointed to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s statement today urging him to “carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” Biden said she hadn’t said anything of the sort when he met with her and other Democratic governors earlier in the week.
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One swing-seat Democratic lawmaker called the interview “sad to watch” and said it “did nothing to make me feel more confident” in Biden and his campaign. Another House Democrat, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, said on MSNBC after the interview that Biden should “step down and let someone else do this.” The situation might come to a head when Congress returns to Washington next week, putting lawmakers together with each other and with the press to air their anxieties.
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“The heart of your case against Donald Trump is that he’s only out for himself, putting his personal interests ahead of the national interest,” Stephanopoulos said at one point. “How do you respond to critics who say that by staying in the race, you’re doing the same thing?”
The president looked incredulous. “Oh, come on,” he said. “I don’t think those critics know what they’re talking about. They’re just wrong.”
Biden will go down as one of the most selfish and power obsessed presidents in American history. And yes, I know the bar is high. Completely delusional and irresponsible. That interview did not help.
— Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) July 6, 2024
Oh, well, I guess that settles it, huh, Joe? The arrogance of this man, coupled with the degeneracy of his family, is a pure American horror show that we must end in November. These are the adults in the room. This is America being back?
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